He said he did not pull any punches regarding Vidal’s acerbic, narcissistic personality, his heavy drinking or his homosexuality, a term that Vidal eschewed. Parini said he purposely waited until after Vidal’s death to write his book, to avoid interference from the writer. Gore, Vidal ran unsuccessfully for office twice, including a bid against Jerry Brown for a U.S. Vidal also became known for his essays and public commentary espousing progressive political ideas, and his legendary series of televised debates with conservative pundit William F. “People should read those novels and know about them down the road.” His best-known novels include “Lincoln,” “Burr” and “Myra Breckinridge.” One fascination, which he kept coming back to in his work, was American history.

He was also a regular guest on talk shows hosted by Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin and others. Navy after high school but never attended college, managed to write some 100 books, including 25 novels, dozens of television and film screenplays, and hundreds of essays. Kennedy and conductor Leonard Bernstein.Īmidst his active social life, Vidal, who joined the U.S. The list of Vidal’s friends and acquaintances reads like a celebrity manifest - as a child, he counted aviator Amelia Earhart as one of his babysitters, and later in life he moved in circles that included everyone from actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward to John F. Parini’s book chronicles Vidal’s life, from his boyhood in his grandparents’ home near Washington, D.C., to time he spent in New York, Rome and his villa near the town of Amalfi on the Italian coast. We talked and talked and talked and talked,” Parini said. He said, ‘Let’s have a drink.’ From then on we were friends. Learning that it was the great American writer who owned a prominent cliff-top mansion, Parini sent him a note, suggesting a meeting. In an interview before his talk, Parini said he met Vidal in the 1980s when he was living with his family on the Italian coast for a year as he worked on his second novel. Parini chose Vidal as his latest biographical subject for both personal and professional reasons - along with being an admirer of Vidal’s novels, screen and stage plays and essays, Parini and Vidal enjoyed a friendship that lasted more than three decades.

He spoke about his 2015 biography of Vidal, called “Empire of Self,” published by Doubleday. Parini, himself a poet, novelist and biographer, was the featured speaker at the March 10 meeting of the Rancho Santa Fe Literary Society. “Here was a man who, in his time, was a meteor,” said Parini of Vidal, a novelist, essayist and public personality who died in 2012 at age 86.

To Jay Parini, Gore Vidal was a great friend, a true artist and a presence in the American intellectual firmament for more than 50 years.

Empire of self a life of gore vidal